The Quins No.9, who featured as a replacement in England's victory over Samoa on Saturday, has since apologised to Barnes after questioning his performance during his club's 18-13 Aviva Premiership defeat to Leicester on Friday night.

"Does Wayne Barnes want to give any more shocking decisions to help the Leicester home team out?!! No shock there!!" wrote the 23-year-old before adding, "Wayne Barnes...hang your head pal!! Reward the team who want to play Rugby not just kick penalties!!!"

The Rugby Football Union have since confirmed that they are investigating Care's comments with disciplinary officer Jeff Blackett set to decide if any further action is required.

"I think that there needs to be a wider education about the use of those sites," Blackett told The Guardian. "Danny and I will have some words. I have still got to decide if what Danny has said has damaged the image of the game, or whether it was just injudicious, in which case he needs a slap on the wrist and get on with life. Rob and I will also have a meeting tomorrow."

Care's outburst follows an RFU directive last month that offered guidelines to the players for use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook in a bid to prevent offensive comments or criticism of officials.

"The England management team have spoken to Danny Care regarding his comments about a referee on Twitter," an RFU spokesman told the Daily Telegraph. "Danny this morning removed the comments and apologized personally to Wayne Barnes for criticising his performance.

"England players have code of conduct which includes guidelines about the use of social network sites and the RFU elite rugby director Rob Andrew is reviewing the comments and will decide on any action he needs to take early next week.

"The RFU has also referred the comments to its disciplinary team who will consider the wider use of the integrity of the game and who will also decide what action to take on Monday."